Thursday, February 18, 2010

Knock-off Wood

I found this blog Knock-off Wood a couple months ago, and one day will make some stuff from it.....once we have a garage or a space to make it. She designs plans for furniture and gets her inspiration from Pottery Barn and other name brand stuff. And she shares her plans for FREE! So nice. Anyway....

She is doing a giveaway for a $50 gift certificate to Home Depot or Lowe's. If you write in your comment to enter that I referred you (including my email address: johannesmegan@gmail.com), we could both win if you get picked.....so come on.....show me some love.

Enter here

I think this is what I would make first.....maybe.....


or this


or this

 

with this
 
and I might as well make this too
 

or maybe just this

Oh to dream.....

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

30 meal plan

I'm a little obsessed about this today. I haven't really done much else other than feed kids and work on the computer.....needless to say, the house is a bit of a disaster and my kids are still in their jammies. Oh well.

Anyway. I saw this idea on nannygoat and am really excited about doing it for our family. I don't mind cooking, but hate thinking of something to make. I usually make a weekly menu and grocery list, but I think this will help me a lot to streamline it a bit. I really like the idea of having a master list of all the recipes with all the ingredients I need for all of them. That way, when I go shopping, if something is on sale, I can plan my meals accordingly.

So, this morning I started writing out all the meals that we normally have. We eat pretty basic meals, so they aren't really "recipes", but whatev. I came up with 16 and then added 2 that my sister sent me. I'll add to it as I think of more or get recipes from people that I think will work for us.

On nannygoat, they used these free downloadable recipe cards, but I wasn't in love with them and I couldn't really get them to work right, so I decided to make my own. First I found these free scrapbooking packets. I used the happy go lucky packet. Then with Picasa, I made them.

Here are the two that I've made so far. The recipes are definitely not fancy.....I don't really even need recipes for these meals, but they just looked so cute, I couldn't help myself.....they are cute.....right??......

 
Can you find the typo?



And here's a blank one in case you feel like using it.
 
I just printed them out as 4x6 on cardstock. Then I printed the red paper from the same scrapbook packet on the back just cause I wanted to....and it looks cute.....
Now I just need to find some more recipes...anyone have some gooders? I don't need anything fancy....as you might have noticed.....

Thursday, February 4, 2010

The gift of an ordinary day

I saw this posted on Cloverlane, and thought I would share.



After it was over, Hadley asked me what it was about.

Me: It was about how kids grow up. They grow up and move away and then get married.
Hadley: It was a girl and boy?
Me: No, it was about two boys, they'll find other girls to marry.
Hadley: Oh. Ok.
Me (seeing that Hadley wasn't quite understanding): You're 4 years old now, right?
Hadley: Yup
Me: When you are 18 years old, you will move away and not live with Mom and Dad anymore.
Hadley (getting super sad and crying): But I don't want to live without you. I will be sad!
Me (feeling very bad that I brought this tender subject up): It's ok, you can live with us then still....it's up to you. It's not going to be for a really long time.
Hadley: I know. I just want to live with you.
Me: Ok. You can live with us for as long as you want.

Sad.

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

stuff megan likes

In my bookmarks, I have a folder named "stuff megan likes". I was browsing through there today and thought I'd share some of the things I like. These are mostly things I want to make and I keep the folder so I can find them....I still haven't made anything off the list though....


 


 
 love the cork board wainscoting inserts - featured on Tutus and Turtles


 
diy shimmer candles from Remodeling this life  


 


 
from MADE 

Now I just need to get started on some of these projects.......soon......

Monday, February 1, 2010

Yummy food

When I was first married, I would always use recipes to cook supper. Often there would be something that I didn't like with the food.....too salty...not salty enough.....too spicy....etc. John never uses a recipe....to an extent. For baking, he uses recipes as a guideline, but often tweaks things a little. He taught me how to cook without a recipe. Some things don't turn out quite how I want, but usually it turns out great. Here are a couple "no recipe" things we've made recently that were de-lic-ious.

Apple Crisp
some flour
some quick oats
some brown sugar
some apples
some margarine (melted - he didn't make it with melted margarine, but it would be better that way)
some cinnamon

1. peel and slice apples and put in a pan
2. mix flour, oats, and sugar together and sprinkle on top of apples
3. bake @ 350 for about an hour
4. eat with vanilla ice cream (of course)

 
It looks a little gross here.....I didn't think to take a picture until it was half-eaten...


Chicken Wings
We don't normally buy wings, but I got them for free when I spent a certain amount at Superstore...bonus!

1. prepare 3 separate "dipping" bowls 
         1st: 2 c. flour and sprinkle some garlic powder and salt or whatever spices you like in. mix
         2nd: eggs. beat. add some salt and pepper (or whatever seasonings you want)
         3rd: 1.5 c. flour, seasonings (I used garlic powder and some "garlic plus" spice mix, and of course salt....I love salt), 1 c. cornflakes (crushed), 1 c. saltines (crushed). mix.

2. get oil ready. We inherited a deep fryer, but you could fry them in a pot of oil, or just bake them (probably healthier, but not as crispy).

3. dip thawed chicken wings in the 3 bowls of stuff (1st, then 2nd, then 3rd), then place in hot oil. I did 10 at a time.

4. make sauce. I don't remember exactly how much of everything I put in, so you can just taste it or smell it to fit your liking. It's a sweet and sour type sauce.
about 1/2 c. ketchup
2 T lemon juice
2 T vinegar
1/4 c. brown sugar
1/4 c. soy sauce
These measurements are all guesstimates. I just dumped stuff in straight from the bottles.....so they are probably a bit off. Just add as much or as little of each as you like. 

5. put cooked wings into a baking pan and cover them with the sauce. I put them in the oven for a little bit, just cause, but you don't need to. It just helped warm up the sauce a bit I guess.....I was improvising here. I only put them in for about 5 minutes at 350. 

6. Dig in. I made 20 wings. 

These were seriously delicious. John said they were the best wings he's ever had. I loved them too. The kids even loved them. Needless to say, they were gone in a few minutes. 




We watched "Julie & Julia" on Saturday night. I recommend it to any who have not seen it. It was really inspiring for both me and John to do what we love. John really wants to try some recipes out of Julia Child's cookbook now.....maybe recipes are useful sometimes......